---
title: Routing
description: How to do routing in Jaspr.
---

---

A core feature of almost every website is routing between separate pages. With Jaspr you can use the core `jaspr_router`
package for a powerful routing system that adapts to your needs.

## Setup

To start, add `jaspr_router` to your project, use the [Router](/api/components/router) component and provide a list
of `Route`s:

```dart title="lib/app.dart"
import 'package:jaspr_router/jaspr_router.dart';

import 'pages/home.dart';
import 'pages/about.dart' ;

class App extends StatelessComponent {
  @override
  Component build(BuildContext context) {
    return Router(routes: [
      Route(path: '/', builder: (context, state) => Home()),
      Route(path: '/about', builder: (context, state) => About()),
    ]);
  }
}
```

See the [Router](/api/components/router) docs for a full description of its API.

As with many Jaspr components, `Router` can be used both on the server and on the client. However, there is an important
difference in routing behavior based on where it is rendered. Read the section below for more details.

## Single-page vs multi-page routing

When creating a new Jaspr project, you can choose between two routing setups:

- **multi-page** (server-side) routing or
- **single-page** (client-side) routing.

This defined how navigating between routes will behave. With **multi-page routing** a "real" page load is performed when
navigating to a new route (aka. the browser requests the new page using its url from the server). With **single-page routing**
the routing happens purely on the client without any request to the server.

Usually you would choose multi-page routing for more "traditional" websites with multiple pages and
single-page routing for more self-contained app-like websites.

<Info>
    There are different advantages and disadvantages for both types. To help you decide you can find many [articles](https://www.google.com/search?q=multi+page+vs+single+page+site) about this topic.
</Info>

<Info>
    Flutter for example only does single-page routing.
</Info>

To set up routing for either strategy is really straight forward:

- For multi-page routing place the `Router` component in the section of the component tree where it is **only** pre-rendered on the server.
  For example if you are using [@client](/api/utils/at_client) components place the `Router` above these components in the tree.

  <Info>
    Since this requires pre-rendering, multi-page routing is only available with **static** or **server** mode.
  </Info>

  <Info>
    If you are unsure about how the separation between server and client works, check out the [Server vs Client](/get_started/server_client) docs.
  </Info>

  To navigate to a different page, use the [Link](/api/components/link) component, which wraps the `<a>` html element.

  When using multi-page routing and the `Router` component is only rendered on the server, you cannot use `Router.of(context).push('/path)'`
  for navigating on the client as it would fail to locate the `Router` in the client-side component tree.

- For single-page routing place the `Router` in the client-rendered section of the component tree, i.e. below any [@client](/api/utils/at_client) components.

  To navigate to a different page, either use the [Link](/api/components/link) component or call `Router.of(context).push('/path');`.

  When using client-side routing we recommend code-splitting your client bundle based on your routes to improve load times.
  See the section below for more details.

## Route based code splitting

<Info>
  This is only relevant when using single-page routing.
</Info>

For larger web apps, we don't want to load everything together, but rather split our pages into smaller chunks.
`jaspr` can do this automatically using `LazyRoutes` and deferred imports.

To use lazy routes, change the above code to the following:

```dart title="lib/app.dart"
import 'pages/home.dart';
import 'pages/about.dart' deferred as about;

class App extends StatelessComponent {
  @override
  Component build(BuildContext context) {
    return Router(
      routes: [
        Route(path: '/', builder: (context, state) => Home()),
        Route.lazy(path: '/about', builder: (context, state) => about.About(), load: about.loadLibrary),
      ],
    );
  }
}
```

This will lazy load the appropriate javascript files for the '/about' route when navigating to it.

Read more in the docs about [Lazy Routes](/api/components/router#lazy-routes).
